Wenger’s team news update on Cech, Koscielny, Ramsey, Cazorla & more

It’s been another busy day of team news updates at Arsenal HQ so I’ll bring you a round-up of all the latest news from Arsenal Wenger….

The boss gave Arsenal.com a full team news update earlier today ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup quarter final with Watford and on the whole it’s pretty positive.

Arsene confirmed that Gabriel and Per Mertesacker will be available to face the Hornets this weekend despite picking up knocks during our win at Hull City on Tuesday night.

Gabriel limped off with a hamstring complaint while Mertesacker took a nasty blow to the head but both defenders are fine and in contention to start on Sunday.

Laurent Koscielny is facing a late fitness test after missing the last three games with a calf injury but Wenger says he only has a ‘little chance’ of being passed fit.

Aaron Ramsey also picked up an injury against Hull having been forced off with a thigh problem with some of the newspapers claiming the midfielder was set to be ruled out for up to six weeks.

However, Arsene appears to have played down those reports after describing Ramsey’s injury as a ‘small alert’ but the club won’t know how long he’ll be out for until the results of his scans come back.

The boss then gave a brief update on Petr Cech, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla after saying that they are all progressing well in their recoveries but won’t be available either this weekend or the following week.

Cech has a calf injury while Cazorla and Wilshere are both working their way back to full fitness following long-term injuries but it looks like we’ll have to wait until after the upcoming international break before we see any of them, meaning they’ll miss upcoming games against Watford, Barcelona and Everton.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on the team news…
We had a few injuries at Hull – Gabriel, Mertesacker and Ramsey. Mertesacker and Gabriel are very positive, there is nothing wrong there, they are both good.

on Ramsey…
There is a small alert, we don’t know how bad it is.

on Laurent Koscielny…
He is not far, he will have tests until Sunday, but it could come too soon. He has a little chance.

on Cech, Wilshere, Cazorla…
They are all progressing nicely, but this week and next week they have no chance.

It’s a huge relief to hear that Gabriel and Mertesacker are okay as the last thing we needed was a crisis in defence, particularly with Koscielny still a doubt.

We’ll now have to wait for more news on Ramsey. It is comforting that Arsene appears to think the early signs are good but we’ve been here before only for the player to be ruled out for months, so let’s see what happens over the next couple of days. Hopefully we get some good news….